my education
investment for the future of their thousands-strong workforce. I haven’t taken the digital marketing classes I’m sure they wanted, nor the consumer behavior classes. I don’t know a lick about search engine optimization, nor have I even been formally educated on social media strategy. I don’t have a graphic design minor, and the minor I choose to pursue is something I am doing simply because I enjoy the subject and wanted to learn more—for the joy of learning. Considering these things, I decided to tell the recruiters not about my coursework, but about my education. I told them that over my four years at college, I’ve spent a lot of time reading books and articles, crafting essays and submitting papers, discussing and debating, and—in the end— learning how to learn. I’ve been taught how to think critically and how to be criticized, how to disagree and how to encourage, how to see the big picture and how to appreciate the small moments of the day, how to delight in words and how to express my own voice with them, how to unlearn lies and how to cling to truths. I have seen myself get smarter and stronger, but also have learned just how much I have left to learn. More than any class, test, or accredited course, overall it has been my education that has equipped me for not just a position, but for the future—whatever and wherever that future might be. I left that interview pretty sure that my answer about my academic background didn’t quite fit into the desirable form, didn’t quite check off the right boxes, didn’t quite line up with each of the required qualifications. But I also left that interview feeling inspired despite the un-inspirational nature of that moment. I left convinced more than ever of the worthy pursuit of lifelong learning, of the merits of education even when perhaps 88